Simultaneous scheduling and location (ScheLoc): the planar ScheLoc makespan problem

While in classical scheduling theory the locations of machines are assumed to be fixed we will show how to tackle location and scheduling problems simultaneously. Obviously, this integrated approach enhances the modeling power of scheduling for various real-life problems. In this paper, we introduce in an exemplary way theory and three polynomial solution algorithms for the planar ScheLoc makespan problem, which includes a specific type of a scheduling and a rather general, planar location problem, respectively. Finally, a report on numerical tests as well as a generalization of this specific ScheLoc problem is presented.